Miami Bands Rock Against Breast Cancer
October is breast cancer awareness month and two local bands in Miami are joining forces to rock against the disease on October 14th at Miami’s most historic bar and live music venue.
Miami, FL (1888PressRelease) October 06, 2009 – According to National Statistics in 2008, an estimated 182,460 new cases of invasive breast cancer occurs among women in the United States per year. An estimated 40,480 women are usually expected to die from breast cancer. It was also estimated that 1,990 men get diagnosed and 450 men die of breast cancer.
The Susan G. Komen For The Cure Miami/Ft Lauderdale Affiliate has a vision: A world without breast cancer. Their promise is to save lives and end breast cancer forever by empowering people, ensuring quality care for all, and energizing science to find the cures. They have supported every advance in breast cancer research over the past 25 years and have provided community grants for breast health education, screening and treatment.
On the night of Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 9:00 PM the 2nd floor of Miami’s oldest bar and live music venue, The Legendary Tobacco Road (located at 626 South Miami Avenue in Miami, FL 33130) will be booming with live music lovers and supporters of this very important cause: breast cancer awareness. The venue will play host to a two-band live music concert featuring the winners of nine Status QuO South Florida Live Music Awards,The Coffee House Gypsies, and popular local cover band The Bailouts. The event willm also showcase live painting by Cuban artist, Celia Crespo. Admission is just $7 and a portion of all door and ticket sales will go to The Susan G. Komen For The Cure Miami/Ft Lauderdale Affiliate.
“This is a very important cause for me personally” said Coffee House Gypsies front-man Albert Damian, “I recently had someone very close to me undergo surgery because of this.” He recalls what sparked the show’s theme, “That is how this whole thing came together. I was talking to Tony from The Bailouts and telling him that I wanted to help a local charity with this show. Tony suggested breast cancer and I had just gone through this extremely personal and hardcore event in my own life with a loved one, it had literally just happened like maybe a week before, so this was a cause that was literally impacting my life directly. It hit home. So I said yeah. And the rest was just a snowball effect.”
The promoters of Tenement Hall Productions, LLC and Damian’s Dream Music, LLC put the show proposal together and presented it to Joe Portela of Tobacco Road. Joe is a CHG fan and an avid supporter of local live music and charity causes, he did not hesitate in agreeing to host the show. “It’s a great cause,” Joe said. “And The Gypsies play Tobacco Road all the time and they always put on a great show.”
THP’s Juan Carlos Cordero commented on the venue selection, “We chose Tobacco Road for this event because The Gypsies love the venue. It has a lot of history, and they love that. The Road is a local haunt for them, they play there often, the regulars there know them, and they even hang out there when they are not performing. Albert is like addicted to their chili or something.”
And historic it is indeed. Tobacco Road is Miami’s oldest bar. It has survived hurricanes and prohibition and seen eras of presidents dating back to William Howard Taft. Throughout its 96+ year history, artists like George Clinton and Koko Taylor have made appearances at the local venue, turning it into ‘the place where local legend and history meet live music’. Most recently Miami’s Cuban singer and icon, Gloria Estefan, was seen celebrating her birthday at The Road. And the upstairs Cabaret (where the Breast Cancer Concert will take place on October 14) is rumored to have once been the favorite hangout to gangster Al Capone and his associates whenever they were in town.
Local promoters, Oski Gonzalez and The Queen of The Scene, have joined in helping spread the word about the event too. A mass email from Oski which detailed the upcoming October 14 show swept across Miami last week saying to all, “Go and support this!” And at a recent music festival in Miami Oski stood up on stage next to The Coffee House Gypsies and said, “This is one of my favorite local bands, go see their show on October 14th!” Queen of The Scene’s website is listed on the event’s official promotional postcard and she personally made a donation to the cause.
“We expect it to be a great night,” said Juan Cordero. “Tobacco Road is just such a great place to be and they are offering some really great deals. And because of the repertoires and performance styles of these two bands, I think that anyone who is a fan of classic rock is going to enjoy this show. You will have both elements of mellow and edge, male and female, electric and acoustic. The fans of each band are bound to enjoy the music of the other. Their acts complement each other a lot. They should do a lot of good for this cause together.”
When asked about the art portion of the evening, Celia Crespo said, “As a woman this cause is very important to me, so when Albert asked me to do it of course I said yes. Albert and I worked together as writers on a literary magazine about twelve years ago. It is great to work with him again. I’ve been a fan of The CHG band for years, and Albert is a big fan of my photography and art. I even did some photo shoots for The Gypsies a few years ago. Now I get to display my own paintings at one of their shows and do some live works in front of an audience while they perform, which is a new and exciting thing for me. It will be very interesting to see where their music takes me. It’s all about inspiration and the moment, and being in it.”
The benefit concert event takes place on the 2nd floor of Tobacco Road (at 626 South Miami Avenue in Miami, FL 33130) on Wednesday, October 14 at 9:00 PM. Admission is just $7. Must be 21 or older to attend.